Bionic Eye Offers New Hope

(KPRC) Victoria Lopez’s 61-year-old mother was diagnosed at 17 years old with a disease that left her blind.Lopez said in the last ten years her mother’s vision completely disappeared.

“She’s lost pretty much, pretty much everything. She’s not even legally blind, she’s just blind at this point,” Lopez explains. “At this point, she’s pretty much dependent. She has to have somebody, when she leaves her home, she has to have somebody guiding her with her. She can’t do it anymore by herself.”

Now a bionic eye implant is offering her new hope.

Dr. Amir Mohsenin and Dr. Garvin Davis, UTHealth ophthalmologists with Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and the Robert Cizik Eye Clinic, are placing the Argus(R) II Retinal Prosthesis System on the patient’s retina. Eventually, an external camera worn on glasses will communicate with the system implanted on her retina, which help her brain decipher basic images.

The company that makes the prosthesis said patients can eventually see light changes, which could help them cross the street or sort laundry. It seems simple, but it means that these patients don’t have to be as dependent on other people to live in their own homes.